This is an update on recent legal developments on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) Tariff refund process as of March 31, 2026.  Late last week the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ordered Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to include finally liquidated entries in its Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries ( CAPE) program. CBP, however, recently advised the court that it cannot at this time include finally liquidated entries, setting the stage for further fireworks between the court and CBP.

On March 27, 2026, Senior Judge Richard Eaton of the CIT issued an order in Atmus Filtration Inc. v. United States, updating his previous order of March 20, 2026, regarding refunds of duties paid under IEEPA. 

The March 27, 2026 order broadens the scope to include finally liquidated entries, encompassing those entries that have completed both the 314-day liquidation cycle as well as the 180-day protest period during which importers can challenge the final assessment of duties imposed by CBP by the protest procedure (19 U.S.C. §1514). Under this new order, the implication is that importers will not be required to file protests for entries that are beyond the date of finality in order to recover the IEEPA duties (“Any liquidated entries for which liquidation is final shall be reliquidated without regard to the IEEPA duties.”). In the March 27, 2026 order, the judge ordered CBP to:

• Liquidate all entries that have not been liquidated with an IEEPA refund.  (This is the CAPE process that is still under development by CBP.  (An entry typically liquidates at the 314th day following the date of entry and this information can be included on the importer’s ACE report).
• The judge also ordered CBP to not only reliquidate any entry that has liquidated but for which the liquidation is within CBP’s voluntary reliquidation period of 90 days, or before 404th date following the date of entry, but to reliquidate any entry that has liquidated, regardless of whether the liquidation is final or not, if IEEPA duties were deposited. 

The court’s March 27, 2026 order can be viewed here.

On March 30 CBP filed its status report with the CIT, where it stated that

“in order to  meet the timeline for Phase 1 deployment … CBP must continue developing Phase 1 of CAPE without the inclusion of finally liquidated entries. ... Phase 1 will only process unliquidated entries and entries within the 90-day voluntary reliquidation period.”

Understanding The CAPE Program

In a declaration presented to the Court by the Executive Director, Trade Programs Directorate, Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) (Brandon Lord), the CAPE Program was explained as consisting of four integrated components:

1. Claim Portal

• The CAPE claim portal will be a new web-based tool in ACE for importers and brokers to submit IEEPA refund requests.
• Filers will submit claims by uploading a CSV file listing the entry summaries for which refunds are requested.
• ACE will perform file-level validations, such as checking whether the submission is complete, properly formatted, submitted by the correct party, and not corrupted.
• If the file fails validation, ACE will reject the entire submission and identify the errors so the filer can correct them and resubmit.
• If the file passes, ACE will then review each listed entry, including whether the entry exists in ACE and includes an IEEPA Chapter 99 tariff number.
• Entries that fail these checks will be removed, but the remaining entries will continue through the process.
• Filers will be able to review rejected entries and resubmit them separately if the issues can be corrected.

2. Mass Processing

• For validated entries, the CAPE Mass Processing component will remove the applicable IEEPA tariff numbers from the entry summaries.
• ACE will then rerun its normal duty calculations.
• In effect, the system will recalculate duties as if the IEEPA duties had never been declared.
• Once that process is complete, the CAPE Declaration will be accepted.

3. Review and Liquidation/Reliquidation

• After acceptance, the entries will move to review and liquidation or reliquidation.
• ACE will schedule the entries for liquidation or reliquidation a set number of days after acceptance, while still allowing CBP to conduct manual review if needed.
• The system will update the entry summaries to reflect the revised duty amounts and will automatically calculate any applicable interest.
• CBP states that CAPE liquidations and reliquidations will be processed Monday through Thursday.

4. Refund

• On the scheduled liquidation or reliquidation date, ACE will send the entries to a CAPE-specific refund process in the ACE collections module.
• Refunds will be grouped by liquidation or reliquidation date and by importer of record, or by a Form 4811 designee.
• Once processed, the refunds will be issued electronically to the designated bank account.

CBP’s CAPE program is still in development.  The expected date of completion is April 20th, and then there may be testing that is subsequently required.  We don’t know as of yet the final date as no information has been released by CBP at this time.  Supposedly, a phased rollout is planned so as to manage the high volume of claims. 

As an importer seeking your IEEPA refunds, the first order of business is to access your ACE Portal account to obtain a list of all entries that you have paid IEEPA duties on.  In your query you may wish to include other information, such as date of entry, date of liquidation, Chapter 9903 line items, duties paid and Chapter 99 HTUS classification. This is key because it will identify the process to follow for each entry and allow you to validate CBP’s subsequent actions with regard to your IEEPA refund requests. If you wish, we can assist with this.

In the meantime, CBP has indicated that entries will continue to liquidate on the 314th day.  This means that the clock is continuing to run with respect to the liquidation of entries, and their horizon of timeliness. If your entry is currently approaching your event horizon of timeliness (the 494th day) and either CAPE is not ready or you have not filed your CAPE submission, it is advised that you file a protest against the liquidation as a means to protect your right to a refund.

What if the liquidation of my entry has already occurred and the liquidated entry has already past or is closely approaching its 180th day following liquidation?  If the entry has reached its date of finality or will do so before the anticipated operational date of CAPE, you should consult with your Customs or trade counsel as to whether you should file a summons and complaint in the CIT asserting jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §1581(i), so that it may be in a position to order CBP to refund the duties on those finally liquidated entries that are now beyond the protest period. While the court may be emphatic that the process will cover all entries whether finally liquidated or not, a Judge’s decisions or orders are subject to appeal.

Please keep in mind that imports from China were assessed with IEEPA duties beginning on February 4, 2025, at 10%, which then increased to 20% and so on in March of 2025. IEEPA duties on products from Canada and Mexico, not otherwise eligible under USMCA began in March of 2025. These dates are important as imports from China entered the liquidation cycle on or about December 25, 2025 (or earlier). The 90 day re-liquidation cycle would begin to end on March 25, 2026, and finality of liquidation occurs on June 23, 2026. 

The rest of the world began the payment of IEEPA duties in April, 2025. These entries started to liquidate on February 13, 2026, and will be available for CAPE for 180 days following the actual date of liquidation.

Judge Eaton’s order of March 27, 2026, is very helpful in clarifying and simplifying the process associated with requesting refunds for the majority of IEEPA tariffs paid, even if it will take longer to develop refund processes for more complex entry types, including reconciliation, drawback, warehouse entries, surety payments, and postal informal entries.

For further information about the applicable IEEPA refund process or how to gain access to your ACE Portal account and download your entry reports or other Customs matters, contact George Tuttle III at geo@tuttlelaw.com or 415-986-8780.

The information in this article is general in nature and is not intended to constitute legal advice or to create an attorney-client relationship with respect to any event or occurrence and may not be considered as such.

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